Craig Smith

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Bad Gopher said:
I'll bite. There has never been one thing for one moment that has suggested even slightly that Ben Johnson was fractionally qualified for this job or would ever succeed as a head coach at any level, and I include all classes of high school competition in any state of this country. In contrast, Craig was very accomplished as a head coach at more than one institution of higher learning, and there was every reason to believe that there was a good chance of that success translating to a major conference. Utah made a good hire four years ago, and it just didn't work out. Minnesota made a disastrous hire.

You asked.
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Or maybe they didn't make a good hire. Maybe they hired a guy who is out of his depth in a P5 conference. You can couch it however you like but he is getting canned for a reason.

Was it a better hire than us? Of course. Would we have more wins overall with him? Yes! Would he likely not be the right hire for us either? I would guess yes.

People get caught up in the "hot names" and every year one of them flame's out. My guess is Smith will find another good mid-major job and flourish and if he is smart he will never leave.
 

stocker08 said:
Looks to me like the board's favorite coach also failed.

My point is that a bunch of the people whining the loudest don't know their ass from their hat.
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If hiring the right coach were an exact science, everyone would be doing it. The adage about kissing frogs before you find a prince is true. Four years ago, I would have given my left nut to have Dennis Gates come here, and he has indeed done well at a high major. Smith stumbled. Whaddya gonna do if you're either Utah or Minnesota? You move on.
 

Bad Gopher said:
If hiring the right coach were an exact science, everyone would be doing it. The adage about kissing frogs before you find a prince is true. Four years ago, I would have given my left nut to have Dennis Gates come here, and he has indeed done well at a high major. Smith stumbled. Whaddya gonna do if you're either Utah or Minnesota? You move on.
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Yeah and this time you do your due diligence and ignore the media.
 



Bad Gopher said:
If hiring the right coach were an exact science, everyone would be doing it. The adage about kissing frogs before you find a prince is true. Four years ago, I would have given my left nut to have Dennis Gates come here, and he has indeed done well at a high major. Smith stumbled. Whaddya gonna do if you're either Utah or Minnesota? You move on.
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Do you Dennis Gates would be as successful here as he is at Missouri? Do you think there's a reason he declined to interview for the job?
 

Johnnyboy18 said:
Do you Dennis Gates would be as successful here as he is at Missouri? Do you think there's a reason he declined to interview for the job?
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Good questions. I'm not going to pretend I know the answers. I will say that, based on all the things I saw and heard about him four years ago, he does PR about 15 times as well as Johnson, which I believe, combined with demonstrated coaching and program-building ability, translates to financial support.
 




Bad Gopher said:
If hiring the right coach were an exact science, everyone would be doing it. The adage about kissing frogs before you find a prince is true. Four years ago, I would have given my left nut to have Dennis Gates come here, and he has indeed done well at a high major. Smith stumbled. Whaddya gonna do if you're either Utah or Minnesota? You move on.
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Yeah....kind of my point.
 






Johnnyboy18 said:
It's not Walmart but they are top 10 per this article!

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Some creativity Minnesota might learn from. . .and it's interesting as Missouri football turned it on pretty well under Drinkwitz and Dennis Gates had huge turnaround just this year.

Univ. of Missouri benefitting from state's law around NIL​

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

Univ. of Missouri benefitting from state's law around NIL

The Univ. of Missouri has created "one of the most transparent mechanisms to make sure its student-athletes get paid and paid well, with the help of the state legislature," according to Joe Drape of the N.Y. TIMES. Most donor-funded collectives raise a majority of their dollars from boosters...
www.sportsbusinessjournal.com www.sportsbusinessjournal.com
 

1) with revenue sharing (which will be distributed to athletes via NIL deals with the school) of $20.5M per year, I believe men's basketball will get an extra $2-3M in NIL money to pay players. That has to be a significant boost, doesn't it?

That's money that basically comes from being in the Big Ten. So it's not like every DI school is going to have that same thing.


2) how much NIL money does Iowa State have? I could believe they have some more than Minnesota and Utah. But not tons more?

How has TJ Otzelberger been able to compile this record in year 4?
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Is he really that much better of a coach than Ben Johnson and Craig Smith? He knows something about basketball that neither of these guys or their assistants have realized?
 

GopherGrit said:
1) with revenue sharing (which will be distributed to athletes via NIL deals with the school) of $20.5M per year, I believe men's basketball will get an extra $2-3M in NIL money to pay players. That has to be a significant boost, doesn't it?

That's money that basically comes from being in the Big Ten. So it's not like every DI school is going to have that same thing.


2) how much NIL money does Iowa State have? I could believe they have some more than Minnesota and Utah. But not tons more?

How has TJ Otzelberger been able to compile this record in year 4?
ap6u0zj.png


Is he really that much better of a coach than Ben Johnson and Craig Smith? He knows something about basketball that neither of these guys or their assistants have realized?
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That guy coached in SD and Coyle missed him. Life doesn’t give many similar gifts.
 

bga1 said:
Yes. Because that means committing to mediocre for another 4 years. In which case, I would rather stay the course another year until we decide to go big.

Agreed.

No. When it is time to move on you go big or don't do it. Going incremental means prolonging the pain. I'm not comparing Craig Smith to Ben Johnson, I am saying what the next step should be- whenever we take it.

I would have chosen Smith over Ben 4 years ago- easily.
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I would’ve picked Johnson simply because he’d financially be easier to fire. But apparently smith lost his job first anyways
 





I really wanted Smith 4 years ago, but the biggest question with him was always if he could recruit at a high enough level to win in a P4 conference. For now, that answer is no. He had a lot of success at his other stops due to finding under the radar high school and international players, and building them within his system. Eric Peterson was his main international recruiter, and he left after season 1 at Utah to become the head coach at the University of South Dakota.

Smith will likely drop down to a lower level for his next stop. I don't think he'll be an option for the Gophers this time, and I think that'll be the right choice.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
I really wanted Smith 4 years ago, but the biggest question with him was always if he could recruit at a high enough level to win in a P4 conference. For now, that answer is no. He had a lot of success at his other stops due to finding under the radar high school and international players, and building them within his system. Eric Peterson was his main international recruiter, and he left after season 1 at Utah to become the head coach at the University of South Dakota.

Smith will likely drop down to a lower level for his next stop. I don't think he'll be an option for the Gophers this time, and I think that'll be the right choice.
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Can we hire Eric Peterson?
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
I really wanted Smith 4 years ago, but the biggest question with him was always if he could recruit at a high enough level to win in a P4 conference. For now, that answer is no. He had a lot of success at his other stops due to finding under the radar high school and international players, and building them within his system. Eric Peterson was his main international recruiter, and he left after season 1 at Utah to become the head coach at the University of South Dakota.

Smith will likely drop down to a lower level for his next stop. I don't think he'll be an option for the Gophers this time, and I think that'll be the right choice.
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I do think a lot of it does have to do with who you have recruiting for you. Musselman and Dutcher had Jimmy Williams. When Clem hired Larry Davis, their recruiting went to the next level, landing Jackson, Lewis, Thomas, James, and Jones.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I do think a lot of it does have to do with who you have recruiting for you. Musselman and Dutcher had Jimmy Williams. When Clem hired Larry Davis, their recruiting went to the next level, landing Jackson, Lewis, Thomas, James, and Jones.
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100% agree. Even in this NIL era, either the head coach is big-time draw eg. Rick Pitino, or there has to be a great recruiter on the staff, who is everywhere. Portal, Prep, International and even Juco.
 

There were a lot of folks clamoring to go after him before Ben got hired and kept bringing him up after. No thanks. People told me Brian Dutcher was too old back then when I suggested it...I would take him now. I bet he could bring some players with him who would have an immediate impact.
 

PMWinSTP said:
There were a lot of folks clamoring to go after him before Ben got hired and kept bringing him up after. No thanks. People told me Brian Dutcher was too old back then when I suggested it...I would take him now. I bet he could bring some players with him who would have an immediate impact.
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Dutcher was the perfect hire that we all needed, but apparently didn't deserve
 



bga1 said:
Yes. Because that means committing to mediocre for another 4 years. In which case, I would rather stay the course another year until we decide to go big.

Agreed.

No. When it is time to move on you go big or don't do it. Going incremental means prolonging the pain. I'm not comparing Craig Smith to Ben Johnson, I am saying what the next step should be- whenever we take it.

I would have chosen Smith over Ben 4 years ago- easily.
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Lmao I don’t know what planet you’ve lived on for the past 15 years but I can assure you Minnesota basketball will not be “going big” with their next hire.
 

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